The Stuyvesants is a collaborative effort between music producer Allan Cole (Algorythm), and record collector Darien Victor Birks (Flwrpt). Both reside in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. The two wanted to work together on a project where they could incorporate several of their talents, related to music and design. They wanted to do this under a moniker that would pay homage to the ’70s. The collaboration allowed them to do four major things, design, beat dig, produce amazing music, and simply have fun. Their first outing was a beatstrumental album called ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ which got plenty of rewind time on the iPod… classic hip hop instrumentals all of which has a 95/96 feel to them. Depth in production. Have a listen below to one of the tracks from The Finer Things below and head over here to download both volumes 1 + 2 from their site for free!! Trust me you wont be disappointed!
Recent Brainfeeder signee gave away some freeness this weekend on the Independent’s music blog. I missed the online boat and only just got round to checking it out, but here is his reaffix of Fink’s Perfect Darkness. Lapalux has a new EP coming out on vinyl in November and a Brainfeeder release in January too so keep eyes peeled for them. For the download head over and read his interview here
Last week my pants were well and truly soiled when Massive Attack dropped their 12-minute collaboration with 2-step God Burial. Ever since hearing that, I’ve been gagging to hear the b-side, thankfully now – we can also enjoy that too.
‘Paradise Circus’ originally appeared on Massive Attack’s 2010 album Heligoland but naturally Burial takes it elsewhere. The legendary Mary Anne Hobbs premiered the song (also standing at around 12 minutes) on her show last night and while radio rips are usually useless – this is very good quality.
…And I think I may agree with Hobbs, I think the b-side is actually better than the a-side. The sonics on this are stunning.
Here goes the first leak off The Roots’ forthcoming concept album undun, it features Big K.R.I.T.
… Can’t tell you how excited I got when I heard The Roots’ new album was going to be a 10 track orchestral concept album (tracklist after the jump). The project will be a re-telling of the life of Redford Stephens (1974-1999) – using diary entries and internal monologues as the backbone for the entire LP.
Speaking about the album drummer ?uestlove said:
“We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the king of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people.
“undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”
The mind boggles. I’m excited. Listen below and get ready.
I will be honest, I don’t know much about Speak! but over here on PB, the music comes first – right?
So I pressed play and with little expectation – liked what I heard. On further investigation, I realised the sax entwined smooth groove is courtesy of Michael Uzowuru, an associate of the OFWGKTA crew. I’m enjoying the Southern Cali producers mellow progressions and sprinklings of instrumentation – Uzowuru has that classic Hip Hop flavour on lock.
I’m literally only posting this song out of interest. I’ve never been a fan of Coldplay (sekkle, please – these opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my fellow PB comrades). Their music (aside from the odd single/album track) has never really done anything for me. But news of their Rihanna collaboration did peak my curiosity – it’s an odd pairing. Coldplay need no help communicating to the mainstream – but, I guess Rihanna has a strong and very important market of her own – those damn tweens. So, guess – when theorised cynically – we can reach for that reasoning.
But what of the track? I shrug. Musically, it’s not bad – it’s somewhat interesting, but apart from that – I can’t say I’m particularly moved by much else on display. I think the ‘news’ of this collaboration was more intriguing then the song itself.
Still one of my favourite breakthrough artists of this year, SBTRKT has literally gone from strength to strength. A milestone in every credible artists career is to do an Essential Mix for BBC’s Radio 1 and during his set, SBTRKT debuted an exclusive new track ‘Runaway’, which features the well known voice of Sampha.
Listen back to the whole set here and the new track below.
Kendrick Lemar’s Section.80 album has become one of my favourite Hip Hop projects to be released this year. I find his flow and (importantly) his voice extremely refreshing. I respect the way he blends different styles and influences but still manages to maintain a contemporary separation.
‘Rigamortis’ is his disturbingly good new single, a video for which was just released. Watch it up top and for goodness sake, download Section.80 if you haven’t already.
There is no doubt – Roy Davis Jr & Peven Everett’s 90′s smash ‘Gabriel’ is a classic and because of this – I often shy away from covers, mash ups and remixes. But something made me give Berlin based production duo Call Super’s a chance…
With a release early this year on new label Five Easy Pieces, JR Seaton and Matt Waites turn their hand to the anthem. Maintaining that all important deep Chicago house bassline, they warped the vocals, add fractures to the rhythm and include some slinky synths – keeping it a tad darker than nostalgia will have you remember.
Fully aware of the influences Def posesses, what he listens to, reads and takes from across the globe and the genre’s he delves into, I’m not surprised by the vast sounds from his latest mixtape, sorry I mean ‘bitchtape’, from LA’s freshest, creative rapper.
The span explains why, with ease, Def navigates through dark, gritty electronic journeys to lighter hip hop waves, to glitchy mismatched beats completed with witty wordplay “Colder than a polar bear’s toenails” to boot. And THIS is apparently something he just knocked up…
Yesterday Erykah Badu reminded us of her ‘Out My Mind, Just in Time (Movement I)’ video – amazingly, she used our site as the portal to do so (no ‘too cool for school’ business here – Badu tweeting about us, made our night). She also announced that she’d be releasing ‘Movement II’ today. A woman true to her word – here it is. In all it’s interpretative splendour. Feels like I’m watching an art-performance piece from the 1960′s. She is other worldly.
Erykah, we will be working together soon. Just putting that out there.
Last night’s London Eye takeover, held by RBMA’s International Festival was arguably one of the biggest music events of the year and most certainly one of the most memorable. Red Bull and it’s worldwide tour took over the EDF London Eye for one night only – each pod hosted by a different DJ/collective/artist.
Our crew was split across two pods – the Deviation pod and the Andreya Triana pod.
Floating above the city lights while Andreya Triana (supported by Tanya Auclair) sang songs off of her critically acclaimed Lost Where I Belong album was both surreal and serene. With London as her backdrop she fully embraced the electric and jovial atmosphere created by just 20 people inside a capsule. The connection between her and those gazing in adoration was simply beautiful. Not to mention, unforgettable.
The Deviation pod, spearheaded by tastemaker extraordinaire Benji B featured a string quartet (a stroke of genius which once again separates this movement from any other around). While Benji played Soulful grooves from the likes of Erykah Badu and Dwele the quartet accompanied – their sonics engulfing the capsule and all within it. But in true Deviation style, the tempo was upped with some classic Garage & Hip Hop bangers. MJ Cole / Lil’ Wayne with strings = winning.
Everyone, in every pod (artist and guests alike) came out with glowing smiles, all fully realising that they had just experienced what will probably be a once in a lifetime event.
This type of feat is only achievable by a forward thinking, innovative company like the ones hosting. I want to go again!
‘Glassdrops’ featuring John LaMonica is the new single taken off Robot Koch’s recently released album The Other Side. The track is glitchy and dark and explores some interesting sonics, LaMonica’s vocals are harrowing but beautiful. The video reflects the mood of the song well.
Listen to and buy The Other Side via the bandcamp player below…
